Christophe Matsuzawa
__FORCETOC__ Background Christophe was born in Uji in the Kyoto Prefecture of Japan. He was born with a very weak body and high blood pressure, and for a while had to be put in intensive care, but a discreet transfer of aura from his father helped to keep him alive. He lived in Japan for about 6 years until he and his family moved to Marseilles, France, because of his father's job transfer, and within the year his younger brother, Yuuki , was born. Christophe was an exceptional student for someone so young, and he was put ahead about two grade levels at his new school, on top of training constantly on his inherited pyrokinetic powers with his father, whom he sometimes had to force to help because of his father's laziness. When he was around 8 he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation , after passing out during school. He was told that it was incurable and for about the next 5 years he had to constantly take small amounts of a prescribed anticoagulant (blood thinner). When Christophe was around 9, his father informed him that a Relentless was after his brother and was getting close, after which he revealed to Christophe the truth that his brother was in fact the Vitivus. He asked Christophe to promise him that he would help to protect Yuuki and his mother, and that no matter what he would never leave them. Christophe agreed and his father never returned, and it was assumed by both he and his mother that he had died. It was because of this promise that Christophe began attending the Academy when he was around 10 years old so that he could train and become strong enough to protect his family. However, because of his family essentially being in hiding from all mages and his father's identity being hidden, he used a simple enchantment to change his hair color to white like his mother's and went by the alias Christophe Takahashi throughout all of his school years. When he first joined, he was by himself and without a team, but after a year he was roomed with Bleeding Heart, and the two became best friends (much to Christophe's displeasure). He also became friends with Alcander, Bracket , Yoru , Z , and Laycee while here. He tried to spend much of his time alone, but sadly he never really could. For a while, everything was going relatively well, and Christophe would always visit his family on time off, but when he was around 15, he was informed by Luz that his mother had been killed and his brother had been put into a coma after a sudden attack by a Relentless. While sitting with his brother in recovery, a man whom he had never met before came into their hospital room, claiming he was sent to check on them. Christophe never found out who he was, but he said that he felt as if he knew him. The man told him that he'll be there when he needs help, and to this day Christophe still has no idea what he was talking about. He stayed with his brother until he awoke, and after their mother's funeral he stayed in France for about a week with Yuuki before he was to be sent to his grandparents in Japan. After returning to school, he began working twice as hard to finish his schooling so that he could return to his brother, and within about a year he had finished the equivalent of three years at the Academy. At graduation, it was announced that he was to be one of the first S-ranks to have graduated in years, but he asked Grimmrod permission to hold off on being given the official position so that he could be with his family. Grimmrod approved, but told him he would have to join eventually. He was around 16 during this time, and after being suggested by his grandparents, he officially finished high school in Japan (which didn't take long) and he began working right afterwards. He started working at a telecommunications company, and when he was around 20 he was able to afford a place for both he and Yuuki to live, because he was actually opposed to Yuuki staying with the Matsuzawas, no matter how respectful he was to the family. The reason for this he has never explicitly stated, but it's implied from flashbacks with his father that the Matsuzawas intended on raising Yuuki just to fulfill the prophecy rather than give him a semi-decent childhood. At the current point in time, Christophe has stop communicating with Bleeding Heart and the others, and has completely severed his ties with the HQ, however he continued to use his powers because he has to protect Yuuki from any attacks by Relentless in the area. His atrial fibrillation still afflicts him. Appearance Christophe is around 175 cm (about 69 in) tall and weighs about 68 kg (152 lbs). He has short white hair that used to be black like his father's, with a prominent cowlick that constantly flies up, a trait which he shares with his mother and brother. It is apparent that the cowlicks act as some sort of transmitters, family members with these being able to communicate by moving them. On many occasions Christophe has been able to tell that Yuuki is in danger or being attacked by sensing it with the cowlick, such as in the first chapter when Yuuki is attacked while trying to get him medicine. He has violet eyes, and is occasionally seen wearing glasses, although he later confessess that he actually has perfect vision. The glasses are more or less to hide his eyes and give him a more "human appearance" while in Dimension-1. Most people in his town don't know he is a mage, and there has been much speculation by his neighbors because of the rather vibrant coloring. He was never sure why this was, as he got the eyes from his human mother, but it's later revealed why when he finds out more about his mother's family. Christophe, his first language being Japanese, has a Kansai dialect when he speaks. Personality Christophe comes off as cold and intimidating, and even when he was in the Academy some of his teachers were scared to approach him directly. In reality, if you get past the piercing stare and hard stance, Christophe is a gentleman who will be polite and overall pleasant to anyone unless they waste his time or he already knows the person well enough to know that he won't want to talk to them (i.e. Bleeding Heart, Alcander). He is very stubborn and dignified, but because of his nature he will always agree with a statement about him if it is true, even if he has to swallow his pride to do so. The only people he has ever been nice to (or been in a relatively good mood around) are his parents andhis brother. He never gets mad at Yuuki unless he is "lecturing" him, whereas he will instantly get angry with anyone else. He also seems much happier around family, or when he remembers past events with other family members. In fact, when he smiles at his brother at one point, Bleeding Heart, Alcander, and a few others present all freak out from the sight, something which they claim is a rare occurrence. Christophe is a very critical person and a natural-leader, and even when he is having an atrial fibrillation attack he manages to command his teammates well enough to get them out of danger. Christophe is very hardened, but it's obvious from the interactions with his brother that this is just on the outside. He wasn't always so cold and uptight, in fact as a child he was very carefree and really enjoyed everything that he did. He even smiled a lot more, but after the disappearance of his father, he went through a significant change and formed a tough exterior that made him the person he is today. The death of his mother made him a bit edgier as well, but the change wasn't as apparent. Some characteristics he did, however, retain from his old self, such as his being strict. As a child, he sometimes even scolded his parents if they were being lazy or were "shirking on their responsibilites as adults." He is also just as straight-forward, at one point when he started school even yelling at a fellow classmate in gradeschool for crying because they didn't want to leave their mother, and that they "wouldn't go anywhere in this world with an attitude like that." His parents were actually very surprised (and worn out) by the fact that Christophe had such a personality, having been raised by a mother who was very lenient and didn't enforce the rules and a father who complained about doing any amount of work. Abilities Christophe is classified as an S-ranked, main offense, lancer. He inherited his family's bloodline ability of pyrokinesis, and as a result he can control already existing sources of fire, or he can make his own. He also has as his bonded weapon a half sword named Hellfire, which he can transmit his fire through. His main attack with Hellfire is one he calls "Dupliquer", where he duplicates Hellfire and merges the two swords, making one large, double-sided sword that is much stronger and somewhat more durable than its orignial form. The only down-side is that with all of that force and strength comes a lot of weight, so Christophe doesn't normally use this attack because it slows him down too much. Whenever Christophe uses his powers, his eyes turn red, the same color as his aura. Most people find it odd that his aura is not the same color as his normal eyes, which is the case for most mages, but as it turns out the other members of his family that have the pyrokinesis ability have the same color aura. So far, the Matsuzawa family's bloodline ability is the only one that has an inherited aura color. Relationships Family Yuuki (brother) Christophe and Yuuki, when the comic begins, live together in Japan, and they are very close. Christophe has said many times that he has devoted his life to protecting Yuuki and trying to give them a normal life like he promised his father, even going so far as to stop talking with all of his friends and hide Yuuki's identity for 14 years from the mages. He also shares a room with Yuuki because of his brother's insomnia, and many times when Yuuki is attacked he drops whatever he is doing to go and save him. However, Yuuki's friends, mainly Mafuyu who joined the Red Stars, have tried to help to protect Yuuki so that they can lessen the burden on Christophe. Yuuki, on many occasions, has tried to get Christophe to do something fun for himself, and to try and restablish communication with his friends, but Christophe has always been too stubborn. Christophe truly loves his brother and only wishes to give him a happy life, and at one point when Bleeding Heart's inner demon attacks he says he would kill Bleeding Heart if to protect Yuuki, however it is unclear if he could really go through with it. Yuuto (father) Christophe was very close to his father, and as a child they did almost everything together. On they surface they had what seemed to be a love-hate relationship, with either Christophe lecturing Yuuto on his laziness or his complaining (mainly about his boring job) or Yuuto retaliating and getting mad at him for doing the same thing to their mother. Yuuto was the one who taught him some of the basics to using his bloodline ability, and the two always played together, while Yuuki normally did the same thing with their mother. Christophe was more devastated than ever after his father's disappearance, and for a while after he didn't speak to anyone, not even his own family. Despite how he acted towards him as a child, Christophe looked up to his father more than anyone, and the best way to infuriate him is to say something insulting Yuuto. When the secret about Yuuki is revealed to everyone, Grimmrod makes a comment about how Christophe is no better than his father, and in a moment of pure rage that actually frightens some of the others, he punches ''Grimmrod ''in the face, telling him that he can say anything about him, but he can never say anything about his father. Friends Bleeding Heart After Christophe was roomed with Bleeding Heart in the Academy, the two started an unlikely friendship. Bleeding Heart at first made advances on him, but after Christophe expressed his decision that he didn't want to partake in anything he was suggesting, Bleeding Heart backed off and Christophe gained more respect for him and the two became better friends. However, their personalities still clashed horribly and Bleeding Heart would still get on his nerves. Even today Christophe gets irritated in Bleeding Heart's presence, but deep down he really does care for him as a friend and he enjoys his company to some extent. Laycee Williams Christophe first met Laycee at the Academy because they shared some classes together. Although the majority of his classes were with his other friends, he was ahead of the others in some subjects and was bumped ahead a few levels and put with his upperclassmen. Laycee is actually a little over a year older than Christophe, but she was one of the few people to approach Christophe and try to be friends with him, as all of the other upperclassmen were either intimidated or irritated by him. At first, Christophe was a little awkward around Laycee because he wasn't sure how to respond to her very chipper and positive attitude, but after a while the two became good friends and they even spent time together outside of class. They had something of a romance for a while, but Christophe would always push her away to some extent because he was so focused on only trying to protect Yuuki, especially after his mother died. He didn't talk to her after he graduated, but once he and Yuuki were forced to join the HQ, he attempted to rekindle his past relationship with her after a suggestion made by Yuuki and his friends. Alcander Panagaris Alcander gets on Christophe's nerves. A lot. They were briefly on the same team (along with Bleeding Heart), and they occasionally hung out, but Christophe honestly is very irritated by Alcander. He doesn't hate him, but he can't normally be in his presence for more than five minutes without getting a headache. The latter, however, does not feel the same. Alcander looks up to Christophe, and is even overjoyed when Bleeding Heart is told that Christophe is in the HQ. Christophe does find Alcander helpful at times, but it was always his carelessness that made him angry and wonder how Bracket could stand it. It's also good to mention that he made friends with Bracket and Yoru through him, but they aren't extremely close. The Sodality Christophe was an unwilling member of the Sodality, however he grew to at least somewhat enjoy the others company, especially since he could spend some of his time studying with Z.